Kearns family in Loughgilly

[dfk]

In army records I have for a Robert Kearns it states he was born in the parish of Loughgilly near Market Hill, birth would have been about 1829 to 1832 or there abouts.
He was my Great Great Grand Father who went into the 26th regiment and served at home and at St Helena Island and then later he joined the 1st Batt 11th Foot and stayed there for about 13 years.
Later he returned with his young family to the UK and made Preston in Lancashire there home, does any one know of or how to find any siblings he may have had in and around the Loughgilly area ?

Kind Regards
David Kearns
Christchurch
New Zealand

[Elwyn Soutter]

The only person named Kearns in the parish of Loughgilly, in Griffiths Valuation for 1864 was a John Kearns who lived in the townland of Ballydogherty where he had a small house on plot 5C(b), such as an agricultural labourer/weaver might occupy. The revaluation records indicate he vacated it in 1882 at which time it was described as “down” ie no longer habitable.

There were no Kearns households in Ballydogherty by the time of the 1901 census.

If you know what denomination Robert was, it might be worth checking the local church records to see if you can find his baptism and that of any siblings. Details of the surviving records for Loughgilly are on the PRONI website. The records themselves are not on-line and a personal visit is required to access them.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/research_and_records_held/catalogues_guides_indexes_and_leaflets/online_guides_and_indexes.htm

[dfk]

Hi Elwyn

Thank you for looking, I can include this in my files for the future and will carry on looking for other clues.
Do you think a request to view at PRONI might be a good idea should someone be visiting in the future?

David
New Zealand

[Elwyn Soutter]

There would be no harm in asking. It would be helpful if you could say what denomination the Kearns were as that would make the searching a lot easier. (Each church has its own records).

[dfk]

Hi Elwyn

Robert Kearns was Church of Ireland when Married in 1858 at Belfast and later after returning to the UK from Army service in India he was Church of England.
In his later years he was even sexton/verger for the family church in Fulwood, Preston in Lancashire.

David.

[gaffy]

Also, watch out for possible alternative spelling, for example, see a bit of discussion about County Down Cairns / Kearns here:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=422998.0

[dtcairns]

After a long hiatus, I am reviewing message boards and noticed these remarks about John Kearns in Ballydogherty.  He is an ancestor.  The surname, though, may or may not be Kearns.  Literacy was not widespread at that time and whoever may have been doing documents may have just picked the Kearns as surname ...... or not.

Descendants of this Kearns became Cairns at some point after the marriage of John Kerns of Ballydogherty to Elizabeth Ann(e) Quin of Ballygorman in 1851.  This couple were parents to my great-grandfather Joseph Cairns.  Joseph in documents I have found listed his place of birth variously as either Gilford or Loughghilly. 

Elizabeth Anne's father was Michael Quin, who lived nearby to John Kearns in the Griffith's Valuation.

[dfk]

Hi, hello once again, its very interesting as i also keep going back to this area (Loughgilly) and keeping an open mind in regards the name spelling, your right with the literacy at the time and also of interest  my Robert Kearns Born about 1830 named his children Elizabeth, Margaret, Jane, Robert, and also a Joseph and there was two others that died very young called John and Mary.
I dont know if my Robert had any siblings but do suspect that he might have had a sister called mary, but this is not proven yet, Roberts father was named John Kearns as per Roberts Marriage.
My Joseph ended his days in Toronto Canada, i dont know why he left the UK for Canada but he did have a second marriage when living there.